[Tfug] A sense of time

[Bexley Hall]

--- johngalt1 <johngalt1 at uswest.net> wrote:

> I agree with the others who seem to want something
> more
> specific about the application or problem to put
> this issue
> in context. With this intellectualizing, we could
> end up
> pondering the philosophy of time. Whatever.
> 
> It kind of sounds like this application is not for a
> PC.
> Other than the relative time idea, if this problem
> had its
> own time standard, you wouldn't need to be concerned
> if the
> user messes around with the RTC.
> 
> What kind of standard, though? You wouldn't
> necessarily want
> to require a connection to the INternet to see an
> NTp
> server. Connection to a GPS for time purposes is
> probably
> out of the question too.

I design embedded systems.  "Appliances" of various
sorts (gasoline pumps, medical instruments, gaming
systems, computer peripherals, process control
systems, etc.).  "Time" is a key component in all
of them (I will avoid dragging RT issues in since
that just complicates the discussion).

In a gasoline pump, the "files" analog may take the
form of "events" (i.e, tanker truck delivered 10,000
gallons of #1 diesel at 3:05PM; pump #7 dispensed
4.238 gallons at 4:09PM; operator XYZ logged on at
5:13PM; etc.).  A gaming device would also note
"events" (though they would be termed "payouts",
"hands dealt", "hopper fills", etc.) as well as
control jobs (e.g., "set payout percentage to 97.32%
at 8AM to increase play during the morning lull",
"schedule ticket printer maintenance at 5PM", etc.).
A medical instrument would also have a notion of
events and "jobs" (e.g., "hepatitis assay ran at
2:14PM", "flush reagent tank at 5:15PM", etc.).

Some apply controls on who/how/when the "time of day"
can be altered.  But, all have to deal with the
concepts of how time is tracked and conveyed to
the user.  All have the same set of problems.
In some environments, these are minimized by just
not letting anyone dick with the time of day clock
(e.g., highly regulated markets like gaming,
pharmaceuticals/medical, etc.).

But, all this does is *avoid* the issue -- it doesn't
*fix* it!

And, when you go to the other end of the spectrum
(e.g., consumer items), NOT having solved the problem
leaves you with a sh*tload of potential headaches!

Capisc?  :> 


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